100 TH SPOR. TING SC N A VERY easy way to get into an argull1ent with a golf tradi- tionalist, on either "ide of the Atlantic, is to suggest that the Old Course at St. Andrews is no longer the finest course in Great Britain. Those who take this controversial stand gen- erally concede that the Old Course, though a little too short and idiosyn- cratic by the best 1110dern standards, is still a superb test of golf, but they con- tend that there just happen to be S0111e better courses. The one they usually nall1e first is Muirfield, which lies tn East Lothian, along the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, S0111e twenty miles east of Edinburgh, and the one they usually nall1e second is the Ailsa course at Turnberry, in A yrshire, on the west coast, about fifty miles south of Glasgow. There is something to be said for this bold contention. The Ailsa course, which was turned into an R.A.F. airbase during the Second \Vorld \Var, was remodelled in the nineteen-fifties bv the Scottish golf ar- chitect Philip Mackenzie Ross with such taste and ill1agination that it ell1erged not only as a far sounder course than before but also, in the ll1inds of ll1any well-travelled golfers, as the most vibrant, ad venturous seaside layout east of California's Pebble Beach. Muirfield occupies a ll1uch flatter and less spec- tacular stretch of dune land than either Ailsa or St. Andrews-or Prestwick, or Birkdale or Dornoch or Sandwich, for that ll1atter-but between 1891, when the course was established, and the ll1id- dIe nineteen-twenties, when it under- went its last considerable revision, Its eighteen holes gradually gained char- acter and distinction, and Muirfield call1e to be recognized as the outstand- . " I . 1 " " 1 d " ]ng c ass]ca, or ort 10 ox, course in Britain. The qualifying adjectives were calculated to pacify the adherents of St. Andrews, who have always been the first to point out that the Old Course is a law unto itself, quite unlike any other links. Muirfield's great quality is its frank- ness-its honesty. There are no hidden bunkers, no recondite burns, no ll1is- leading or capricious terrain. Every hazard is cle'lrly visible. Chiefly for this reason, the courSe has always been extrelTIe ly popular with foreign golfers, and especially All1ericans; it has a sort f ". 1 d " fl I k . . o ]n an ,avor t lat 111 a , es vIsItors feel ll1uch 1110re at hOll1e on it than on any other British chall1pionship course. Moreover, Muirfield is perhaps the ITIOSt beautIfully conditioned course in Britain. The turf on the fairways ]S firll1 and crisp, the greens are rell1ark- HONOURABLE COMP ANY ably true and of uniforll1 speed, and even the nUll1erous bunkers are assidu- ously grooll1ed. In recent years, the British Open has regained nearly all its forll1er prestige, and while the list of entrants for the 1966 chall1pionship early this July would undoubtedly have been ill1posing wherever the event was held, the fact that it was M uirfield's turn to act as host to the Open guar- anteed attendance by leading golfers froll1 all over the globe. (Indeed, the onlv one who wasn't on hand was Billy Casper, the new United States Open chall1pion, who earlier this season had COll1111itted hill1self to appear that week ]n a tournall1ent the Mormon Church-his church-conducts.) The winner at Muirfield, as everyone knows, was Jack Nicklaus, and though he obviously played the best golf and earned his victory honestly, ll1any of the players he defeated ll1ade no bones about their disappointll1ent. Each of thell1 was convinced that Muirfield was just his cup of tea and that he should have won there. Back in 1892, when the British Open was held at Muirfield for the first till1e, golfers thought S0111ewhat less " -......- \ / ., - - "'-.- -:;-." I/1fI1" ì , _, \ ---,;; -:: f (:11'\ tJfö , & < L v- ... ..- Ð:F kindly of the layout. For exall1ple, when Andre\\ K]rkaldy, the rough- Llnd-ready professional frOll1 St. An- drews, was asked at the close of the toutnalnent what he thought of the course, he declared, "Ach, it's an auld water ll1eadie. 1'111 glad I'ln gaun h0111C." (The fact that Harold Hilton, an al1lateur-and dn Englishll1an to boot-had just won the Open might have had s0111ething to do with Kirkal- dy's dour judgll1ent. ) rrhen, there's the COll1pan]On story about the nall1eless visitor who was foolishly asked his opin- ion of the course after he had battled it on a cold, rainy weekend. "Muirfield be daInned, and this whole benighted area!" he spat out. "I don't call this East Lothian. I call it East Loath- s0111e." l"he chances are that this golfer, like Kirkaldy, call1e froll1 the Old Course, for over the years there has been a strong rivalry between M uir- field and St. Andrews, which, as the crow flies, is only twenty ll1iles away across the f'irth of F'orth, on the Fife- shire Peninsula. Muirfield, you see, ]S 11lore than just a splendid golf course. It is thL hOll1e of the Honourable COll1- pany of Edinburgh Golfers, the one golfing organization in Scotland that possesses a lustre approaching that of the \: " I ' " ., '" , ' I " .., <" 1 ï -- .-c .'.... '" '. i. '.... < .., .. \ ':" . :\ . .1- . "i' U -c::' . . ..- ./ .,.', "Let Johnçon carry that around in his pocket!))